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The Secret World of Alex Mack
The Secret World of Alex Mack is an American television series that ran on Nickelodeon from October 8, 1994 to January 15, 1998, replacing Clarissa Explains It All on the SNICK line-up. It also aired on YTV in Canada and NHK in Japan, and was a popular staple in the children's weekday line-up for much of the late '90s and early 2000s on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Repeats of the series aired in 2003 on The N, but it was soon replaced there. The show is currently not on the air in the United States. The series was produced by Thomas Lynch of Lynch Entertainment and was produced by RHI Entertainment, Hallmark Entertainment and Nickelodeon Productions. For home video releases, it was released under the Hallmark Entertainment label, and later by Mill Creek Entertainment, making it the first Nickelodeon show not to be released with Paramount Home Video. Premise Alex Mack is an ordinary teenage girl, living with her parents and older sister in the corporate town of Paradise Valley. After her first day of junior high school, while walking home, Alex is nearly hit by a truck from the chemical plant, and during the incident, she is drenched with a top-secret chemical called GC-161. It's not long after when Alex realizes the chemical has done something to her. She now has the power of telekinesis, can shoot electricity through her fingertips, and morph into a silver puddle. She also turns golden yellow when experiencing extreme emotions, a source of much anxiety. She confides only in her sister Annie and her best friend Raymond about her powers and must keep them a secret from everyone else, including her parents, for fear of what the chemical plant CEO, Danielle Atron, will do to her if she finds out. Main characters *'Alexandra "Alex" Mack' (Larisa Oleynik) – Alex is an average teenager in Paradise Valley. After the chemical accident on her first day of Junior High, Alex must now deal with the pressures of having extraordinary abilities in addition to the normal struggles of her everyday life. She likes to collect hats. * Raymond "Ray" Alvarado (Darris Love) – Alex's closest friend and next-door neighbor. Alex sees him as her brother, often sharing everything between themselves, including the secret of Alex's powers. He can be lazy and a slacker. He has proven numerous times that he will do anything to protect Alex from the Plant. * Anne "Annie" Mack (Meredith Bishop) Alex's older sister, and a scientific genius in her own right. Next to Ray, she is the only one who originally knows about Alex's powers. She thinks Alex's powers are going to win her a Nobel Prize, and is the one who usually keeps Alex's unpredictable abilities in check. She eventually goes off to college, leaving Alex and Ray to cope with Alex's problems arising from her powers alone. Secondary characters * George Mack (Michael Blakley) and Barbara Mack (Dorian Lopinto) – Alex's parents, neither of whom know of her powers up until the series finale. George is a brilliant chemist who works for Danielle Atron at the Plant, while Barbara is a more down-to-earth woman who works in a public relations firm. * Louis Driscoll (Benjamin Kimball Smith) – First appeared in season 2. Louis' personality can be described as bold and abrasive. He's one of Ray's friends, but Alex often sees him as an annoying loudmouth. * Dave Watt (John Nielsen) – The dim-witted truck driver who was driving the truck that dumped the GC-161 chemical on Alex. He and Vince are teamed up to try find the GC-161 kid, since Dave was the only witness. Unlike Vince, he is kind, keeping Alex's secret after learning it. * Kelly Phillips (Hilary Salvatore) – First appeared in season 2. Kelly is Alex's school rival and deviously discredits Alex at every given turn, much to Alex's dismay. She is also Scott's second on-screen girlfriend. Eventually, the two find common ground and become allies. * Robyn Russo (Natanya Ross) – One of Alex's neighborhood friends. Though fun to be around, she suffers from low self-esteem. * Nicole Wilson (Alexis Fields) – Another of Alex's friends. An opposite personality to Robyn, has a take-charge attitude and strong-willed demeanor. After Alex and her friends start High School, Nicole appears less frequently. * Danielle Atron (Louan Gideon) – The corrupt owner/CEO of the Paradise Valley Chemical Plant, and Alex's main nemesis. She wants to market GC-161 as a radical new weight-loss drug, and has made it her mission to find the GC-161 child (whom she does not know is Alex) and capture her, as both a test subject and a threat to the secrecy of her plans. * Vince Carter (John Marzilli) – The maniacal head of plant security, he makes it his obessesion to find the GC-161 kid. He hates Dave, despite often working together, and torments him whenever possible. Vince later gets fired in Season 3 as Danielle has become tired of his failed attempts to capture Alex, though he continues to hunt her in hopes of making up to Danielle. * Lars Frederickson (Kevin Quigley) – First appeared in season 3. A skilled chemist hailing from the Plant's foreign branch in Vienna. He becomes Danielle Atron's closest subordinate, after Vince is fired. * Hunter Reeves (Will Estes) – Appeared in the show's fourth season, Hunter comes to Paradise Valley with an agenda concerning the disappearance of his father in relation to GC-161. He later becomes Alex's confidante and boyfriend. * 'Jessica '(Jessica Alba) - Appears in the show's first season, via a handful of episodes, as Scott's first on-screen girlfriend and Alex's rival. She moves away with her family, after Season One, being replaced by Kelly Phillips. * 'Scott Greene '(Jason Strickland) - A friend of Alex's, as well as her secret crush, during Junior High. Eventually, she severs her ties of friendship with him, after he lies to her about her photography talents. He has a tendency for picking mean girls as girlfriends, such as Jessica and (later) Kelly Phillips. GC-161 Fast Facts GC-161 is a chemical compound of golden color that was being developed as a weight-loss miracle drug by chemical plant owner Danielle Atron. When taken in large doses, it has considerably dangerous side effects, including an ability to glow, telekinesis, electromagnetic manipulation, and the ability to metamorphose into a puddle of liquid. Many of Alex's problems seen throughout the series are a result of her powers, usually caused through malfunctions or lack of control. Much of the series' plot hinges on Danielle Atron's desire to capture the GC-161 kid (Alex) and study its effects on "him" (she and many others assume it was a boy who got soaked in the chemical). More importantly, Danielle Atron fears that if the media learned the truth of GC-161 through this kid, she would lose the billions of dollars GC-161 would stand to make and her reputation would be ruined. Other test subjects, like a chimpanzee, several rabbits, and an unwitting test family, also developed lesser forms of Alex's abilities via small doses of GC-161. Later in the series, Alex meets with one of the original researchers of GC-161, who reveals that the chemical was first developed in the late seventies, and that he knew of the danger it possessed (having tested it upon himself and gaining temporary powers). Though he tried to warn his superiors of the dangers of GC-161, Danielle Atron refused to listen, and so he fled to the woods to live as a hermit. In the series finale, Louis accidentally learns of Alex's powers, but agrees to keep them a secret. However, when he blabs about them to Ray while on the phone, he is captured by Plant security and tortured into revealing Alex's identity. After having Alex and her parents imprisoned and with GC-161 ready to be sold within hours, Danielle Atron arranges to destroy her chemical plant with explosives, thus eliminating all evidence of her sinister activities. Fortunately, Alex's friends arrive to rescue the Macks, while Dave reveals the truth about GC-161 and Alex (having eventually learned her identity during Season 3) to the authorities, who see to it that Danielle is arrested in time. Afterwards, Alex's father George develops a special antidote that can restore Alex's mutated state to normal. It is unknown what Alex chooses to do with the antidote afterward, for the last scene ends with an ambiguous shot of Alex smiling. Episodes Video releases The show's only VHS release, In the Nick of Time, was released by Sony Wonder in January 1996. The show's first season (consisting of 13 episodes on two discs) was released by Genius Entertainment (also known as Genius Products; a subsidiary of RHI Entertainment) on DVD on October 2, 2007. On June 6, 2017, it was announced that the complete series would be released on DVD by Mill Creek Entertainment on August 1, 2017, in Region 1. Book series A book series aimed at young readers was released along with the series. The first and last books of the series were novelizations of the first and last episodes, respectively. The rest of the series consisted of completely original stories, tied into the main series through the mentioning of various plot points from the TV episodes. Trivia * This was the longest running live-action show on Nickelodeon, with a total of 78 episodes total, until the record was broken by iCarly when it aired its 79th episode "iPity the Nevel". * Throughout the series many real-world cars can be seen. Examples include: **The plant workers driving Hummers. **The chemical van which crashes into Alex being a GMC. **The Macks own a Chevrolet station wagon. **A recurring bird's-eye-view shot of the school parking lot, in which a Chrysler Corporation minivan can be seen. *Various product placement can be found throughout the show. Examples include Tootsie Roll Pop and AT&T. Gallery Nickelodeon Magazine cover November 1995 Larisa Oleynik Alex Mack.jpg|Alex Mack on the cover of Nickelodeon Magazine, November 1995 Alex Mack In the Nick of Time VHS print ad NickMag March 1996.jpg|1996 print ad for the VHS release "In the Nick of Time" Alex Mack 3D Noggle Goggles print ad NickMag Sept 1997.jpg|1997 print ad for 3D Noggle Goggles. External links * Episode listing of the series * * de:Was ist los mit Alex Mack? Category:Shows Category:Live-action shows Category:Cancelled shows Category:Science Fiction Category:The Secret World of Alex Mack Category:1990s premieres